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Autobiography

A young man working as a housekeeper in an empty mansion. When its owner returns to start his mayoral election campaign, the young man bonds with him and defends him when his campaign is van... Read all A young man working as a housekeeper in an empty mansion. When its owner returns to start his mayoral election campaign, the young man bonds with him and defends him when his campaign is vandalized, setting off a chain of violence. A young man working as a housekeeper in an empty mansion. When its owner returns to start his mayoral election campaign, the young man bonds with him and defends him when his campaign is vandalized, setting off a chain of violence.

• Makbul Mubarak
• Kevin Ardilova
• Arswendy Bening Swara
• Haru Sandra
• 6 User reviews
• 16 Critic reviews
• 16 wins & 18 nominations

Top cast 24

• Rakib's Father
• Government Employees
• Construction Laborers
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Makbul Mubarak 's directorial debut.

User reviews 6

• MargaretW-46
• Apr 23, 2023
• How long is Autobiography? Powered by Alexa
• January 19, 2023 (Indonesia)
• Philippines
• Bojonegoro, Indonesia
• KawanKawan Film
• Kaninga Pictures
• Staron Film
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $362,932 (estimated)

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• Runtime 1 hour 55 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Autobiography

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• Haru Sandra

• Gunawan Maryanto
• Yudi Ahmad Tajudin
• See all credits
• "A deeply personal tale informed by Mubarak's own experiences"  Naman Ramachandran : Variety
• "[It] is a genuine discovery here, a taut and elegantly staged two-hander that transcends regional politics to make a profound comment on the state of the world today"  Damon Wise : Deadline
• "An impressive feature debut (...) A gripping tale that marks Mubarak as a powerful new voice"  Allan Hunter : Screendaily
• "This plot conceit is just too generic and familiar (...) The imaginative empathy he attempts to create by placing himself in a very different person’s shoes can only go so far"  David Katz : Cineuropa
• "It's a chilling and captivating exploration of Indonesia's recent history through the story of a young man seeking purpose and approval"  Martin Kudlac : Screen Anarchy

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Mark hamill still has star (wars) in his eyes – toronto studio, venice review: makbul mubarak’s ‘autobiography’.

By Damon Wise

Film Editor, Awards

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Forget the overly poetic title, Makbul Mubarak’s terrific Indonesian thriller Autobiography — which premieres in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section — is a genuine discovery here, a taut and elegantly staged two-hander that transcends regional politics to make a profound comment on the state of the world today.

American arthouse audiences should be especially receptive to its riveting portrayal of a charismatic candidate running for mayoral office whose populist image masks a very fragile ego and a desire to maintain absolute power at any cost.

The story unfolds from the viewpoint of Rakib (Kevin Ardilova), the young caretaker of an empty mansion owned by Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara), a retired general. Rakib’s family has been in service to Purna’s ancestors for generations, but, with his father in prison and his brother abroad, he’s the last of his clan to be forced into subservience.

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When Purna suddenly returns to take part in the local elections, Rakib is, at first, a little put out to have his peace disturbed, not to mention intimidated by the older man, a greying, whippet-like authoritarian figure. But when Purna starts showing him attention — and even a bit of fatherly affection — he warms to him: after all, Purna is a big personality, and his pithy, urbane wisdom is deeply impressive to a country boy.

Watch on Deadline

This, of course, is how authoritarianism casts its spell on the working man, and as Purna’s driver and confidante, Rakib is easily flattered, given special privileges and little favors here and there. Naturally, then, Rakib shares his boss’ concern when someone vandalizes Purna’s campaign. The culprit is a young man whose family’s livelihood is on the line — as a candidate, Purna supports a land grab that will put local farmers out of business — so Rakib pays him a visit. Inspired by Purna’s tactful defusing of a heated incident earlier, Rakib thinks that an apology will suffice and takes him home to make amends. Instead, Purna dishes out a vicious beating, leaving the young man for dead.

This sudden escalation is masterfully handled, leaving Rakib shell-shocked and terrified, a reaction made horribly plausible thanks to Swara’s note-perfect performance. And from here, Autobiography becomes something of a monster movie, as Rakib tries to walk back his allegiance while at the same time knowing what kind of a man Purna really is: a vain, morally and literally corrupt psychopath. The fatherly advances, the looks and touches — in one excruciating scene, Purna walks in on Rakib in the shower — suddenly take on a whole new dimension, while at the same time a moral dilemma presents itself: how do you slay the monster without becoming the monster yourself?

Unusually for a film of its kind, the payoff is as good as its setup, and Mubarak’s rich, impressive film leaves a very strong aftertaste. Power corrupts, but Autobiography is a welcome reminder that this is a lesson that no one — no one — will never really learn.

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Autobiography Reviews

...asks some mighty questions about the need to recognize the capacity to do bad in ourselves before we can, hopefully, move forward, be better. Does a repressed society need to tap into their own dark side in order to exorcise the demons of the past?

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Dec 1, 2023

A taut and elegantly staged two-hander that transcends regional politics to make a profound comment on the state of the world today.

Full Review | Sep 19, 2023

“Autobiography” is a great debut for Mubarak, equally artful, well-shot, and contextually rich, and one of the best films we have seen this year so far.

Full Review | Original Score: 8 | Jan 3, 2023

As the title suggests, this is a portrait of not just a man but a nation. . . . Yet this allegory is nuanced.

Full Review | Nov 17, 2022

A beautifully paced drama about power dynamics within an abusive relationship.

Full Review | Oct 16, 2022

Proximity to power threatens to taint the soul in the debut feature of critic-turned-filmmaker Makbul Mubarak, a taut, brooding thriller based around the dynamics between a naive young housekeeper and a retired general.

Full Review | Oct 5, 2022

An auspicious, atmospheric first feature that knows how to co-opt generic conventions and a richly cinematic style, in order to illuminate some of the the darkest recesses of Indonesia’s recent history.

Full Review | Sep 30, 2022

There’s a pervasive darkness that slowly creeps into every frame of Autobiography and Mubarak capitalizes on that to staggering effect.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 20, 2022

Writer/director Makbul Mubarak titles his portrayal of these two men Autobiography not because their story mimics his own, but because he's wielding the film as a metaphor for the autobiography of his homeland.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 20, 2022

Rarely do debut features feel as confident as Makbul Mubarak’s Autobigraphy, an electrifying, bold and heartbreaking film that sends an urgent message about Indonesia’s decaying political landscape.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Sep 10, 2022

[Autobiography is merely] the tottered unfurling of reductionism and presumed dramaturgical virtuousness.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2022

Autobiography (2022): ‘TIFF’ Review – An strikingly impactful coming-of-age debut

From a broader perspective, the film belongs to the coming-of-age genre, but it also delves into topics like a power struggle, socio-political hierarchy, class divide between the rich and the poor, and fatherly issues. Due to the complex narrative of the story, the film goes through a lot of tonal shifts. It starts as a self-reflective story of a struggling young adult, then slowly morphs into a palpable thriller and eventually ends as a tale of revenge and maybe justice to some extent. However, that mostly works out due to a solid screenplay, smart editing, and adept direction.

Things soon take a dark turn for Kib as he begins to realize that Purna is not exactly a man who follows any moral code. He is, in fact, a power-hungry vindictive old man who would not accept any criticism of his ideology or beliefs. Interestingly though, several times in the film, Purna addresses Kib as “son” and introduces him as someone who is like a son.

Instead of using explosive dialogues and thunderous action set pieces, the director relies on atmospheric tension, ominous interactions, and very strategically put plot devices. Several scenes have been carefully written in order to establish Purna’s authority over the town and its people. In the very first scene, Kib is shown closely following a chess game of Viswanathan Anand.

Mubarak’s vision for Autobiography has been taken a notch higher by the camera work of Wojciech Staron and the editing of Carlo Francisco Manatad. By creating a color palette largely dominated by grey, blue and green to create a fitting atmosphere, taking both close-up and mid-length shots, and using the right kind of light to justify the shifts in the narrative, Staron deserves a lot of credit for making the film what it is. Manatad, on the other hand, has managed to make this film pretty easy to follow despite its complex story. The two lead actors, Ardilova and Swara have given extremely nuanced, realistic performances. Most essentially, Mubarak has shown both promise and confidence with his direction here.

Not all coming-of-age tales end with a green pasture. While the climax totally justifies the nature of the story, it is far from what can be called satisfying. It rather reflects the harshness of life and leaves the audience with a bitter aftertaste, making the film more real and honest. Mubarak, who used to be a film critic and has made a number of praiseworthy short films, deserves a round of applause for making a feature film debut as impactful as this.

Autobiography was screened at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival

Read more: river of blood [2021]: ‘tiff’ review – a tale of cyclic revenge that reflects potential, autobiography (2022) movie liks – imdb autobiography (2022) cast – kevin ardilova, arswendy bening swara.

Rohitavra is an aspiring writer, who currently works as a Government employee, to get by. He hopes that one day he'll make the big leap. But for now, movies, music, and books are what keep him alive.

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Autobiography (2023)

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A young man is working as a housekeeper in an empty mansion. When its owner returns to start his mayoral election campaign, the young man bonds with him and defends him when his campaign is vandalized, setting off a chain of violence.

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A young man is working as a housekeeper in an empty mansion. When its owner returns to start his mayoral election campaign, the young man bonds with him and defends him when his campaign is vandalized, setting off a chain of violence.

‘Autobiography’: Watch First Trailer for Venice, Toronto Selection (EXCLUSIVE)

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Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak is making quite a splash with his debut feature “ Autobiography ,” which is world premiering at Venice’s Horizons strand and then playing at Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section.

The film, which examines the effects of Indonesia’s military dictatorship on the country’s youth, follows a young man torn between loyalty and justice who confronts the truth of his father figure — a retired general — that may destroy them both.

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” ‘Autobiography’ is a story very specific to Indonesia because it addresses the legacy of our history, but at the same time, it also addresses the world we are co-existing in now: the heavy price of ignorance, the rise of populism, and what does it mean to be our true self in a world where the concept of self is continuously shaped by our relationship with other people,” Mubarak told Variety .

“Autobiography” is produced by leading Indonesian producer Yulia Evina Bhara ‘s KawanKawan Media, whose credits include a brace of Locarno winners – Yosep Anggi Noen’s “The Science of Fictions” and Carlo Francisco Manatad’s “Whether the Weather Is Fine.”

The film is a seven country co-production between Indonesia, France, Singapore, Poland, Philippines, Germany and Qatar, with Louise Bellicaud, Claire Charles-Gervais, Jeremy Chua, Malgorzata Staroń, Armi Rae Cacanindin, Nicole Gerhards, Amerta Kusuma, Robin Moran, Pinkan Veronique, Arya Sweta and Ganesya also serving as producers.

“I started this journey with the humblest intention of telling a story that is specific to Makbul’s personal experience with his family. The dream was to share it to Indonesian audiences. Along the way, we found out that his story also relates closely to many people around the world. That’s why, we took the challenge of inviting more overseas collaborators into the family of ‘Autobiography,’ ” Bhara told Variety .

Alpha Violet is handling international sales.

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Autobiography.

Directed by Makbul Mubarak

A young man torn between loyalty and justice confronts the truth of his father figure that may destroy them both.

A young man is working as a housekeeper in an empty mansion. When its owner returns to start his mayoral election campaign, the young man bonds with him and defends him when his campaign is vandalized, setting off a chain of violence.

Kevin Ardilova Arswendi Nasution Yusuf Mahardika Lukman Sardi Yudi Ahmad Tajudin Rukman Rosadi Haru Sandra Gunawan Maryanto Ibnu Widodo Mardiko Agus Nugroho Kun Baehaqi Almas Achmad Agus Budi Gondo Lifenya Kusuma Dewi Ganesya Iwan Siswoyo Dewi Qurrota'ayun Doris Khoirum Mohammad Fauzi Siti Fauziah Arya Sweta M. Reza Fahriyansyah

Director Director

Makbul Mubarak

Producers Producers

Yulia Evina Bhara Ganesya Nicole Gerhards Claire Charles-Gervais Louise Bellicaud Pinkan Veronique Jeremy Chua Robin Moran Małgorzata Staroń Amerta Kusuma Arya Sweta Armi Rae Cacanindin

Writer Writer

Editor editor.

Carlo Francisco Manatad

Cinematography Cinematography

Wojciech Staroń

Production Design Production Design

Sigit D. Pratama

Sound Sound

Jean-Guy Véran Waldir Xavier Remi Crouzet L.H. Aim Adi Negara

Costume Design Costume Design

KawanKawan Media FOCUSED equipment PŌTOCOL Staron Film NiKo Film In Vivo Films Partisipasi Indonesia Purin Pictures

France Germany Indonesia Philippines Poland Qatar

Releases by Date

03 sep 2022, 12 sep 2022, 06 oct 2022, 07 oct 2022, 08 oct 2022, 15 oct 2022, 22 oct 2022, 01 nov 2022, 09 nov 2022, 11 nov 2022, 12 nov 2022, 13 nov 2022, 15 nov 2022, 20 nov 2022, 21 nov 2022, 26 nov 2022, 29 nov 2022, 03 dec 2022, 04 dec 2022, 07 dec 2022, 12 feb 2023, 06 mar 2023, 09 mar 2023, 17 mar 2023, 25 mar 2023, 06 apr 2023, 07 apr 2023, 08 apr 2023, 21 apr 2023, 02 may 2023, 09 jun 2023, 11 jun 2023, 30 jun 2023, 23 jul 2023, 27 jul 2023, 28 jul 2023, 10 aug 2023, 19 oct 2023, 18 nov 2023, 19 jan 2023, 01 mar 2023, 16 sep 2023, 14 feb 2024, 13 apr 2023, releases by country.

• Premiere Adelaide Film Festival
• Premiere Sydney Film Festival
• Premiere Melbourne International Film Festival
• Premiere Rio de Janiero International Film Festival
• Premiere Toronto International Film Festival
• Premiere Beijing International Film Festival
• Premiere Shanghai International Film Festival
• Premiere 18+ Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
• Premiere Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
• Premiere Helsinki Cine Aasia
• Premiere Festival des 3 Continents
• Premiere FilmFest Hamburg
• Premiere Around The World In 14 Films Festival
• Premiere Aegean Film Festival
• Premiere Hong Kong International Film Festival
• Premiere International Film Festival of India Goa
• Premiere 17th Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival
• Theatrical 17+
• Digital 17+ Prime Video
• Premiere Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
• Premiere Venice Film Festival
• Premiere TOKYO FILMeX
• Premiere Vilnius International Film Festival
• Premiere Luxembourg City Film Festival
• Premiere Malaysia International Film Festival
• Premiere Marrakech International Film Festival

Netherlands

• Premiere CinemAsia Film Festival
• Premiere Films from the South Festival

Philippines

• Premiere QCinema International Film Festival
• Premiere Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival
• Premiere 16 Kino na Granicy
• Premiere Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
• Theatrical 18
• Premiere Auteur Film Festival
• Premiere Singapore International Film Festival
• Premiere Asian Film Archive

South Korea

• Premiere Busan International Film Festival
• Premiere Stockholm Film Festival
• Premiere Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival
• Premiere World Film Festival Bangkok
• Premiere Istanbul Film Festival
• Premiere BFI London Film Festival
• Premiere Santa Barbara International Film Festival
• Premiere New Directors/New Films Festival
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Popular reviews

Review by danielrah ★★★★½ 11

Analisis Dampak Jangka Panjang Kepemilikan Toyota Fortuner Terhadap Tingkat Aroganisme Manusia

Review by Hikmat Darmawan ★★★★★

Ini nonton kedua kali, setelah dulu sempat nonton versi lebih mentah dalam pewarnaan dan suara. Jadi, ada perbandingan. Dan boleh dibilang, khususnya suara semakin menambah daya cekam film ini. Lanskap suara film ini menambah kedalaman --suara azan subuh masjid kampung bersahutan, tata musik yang atmosferik, napas memberat.

Menonton kali kedua, di bioskop Sala Darsena, dalam rangka world premier di Venice Film Festival. Mungkin ini memberi bias haru saat saya menonton. Film panjang pertama Makbul Mubarak ini, masuk kompetisi Horizon. Tapi, dengan menghitung kemungkinan bias itu, saya masih tetap melihat film ini adalah sebuah film politik yang penting.

Persisnya, sebuah metafor tentang rezim militer Soeharto dan generasi sesudahnya. Sikap ayah Rakib (ia dipenjara, rupanya terpaut urusan dengan sang jenderal purnawirawan) ketika…

Review by CinefoxxID ★★★★

Siap, Laksanakan!

"Seram tanpa setan" menjadi jargon utama dari film ini dan gw harus setuju bahwa film ini dapat menampilkan sosok yang lebih seram daripada setan, yaitu seorang jenderal pemilik mobil Fortuner

Dengan melihat poster dan judulnya, maka karakter Rakib & Purna ibarat 2 sisi koin berbeda dengan nilai yang sama. Sosok Purna sebagai seorang jenderal yang tampangnya malaikat & hati iblis serta Rakib yang amat lugu sebagai asisten Purna. Puas banget gw ngeliat Kevin Ardiloba & Arswendy dengan akting mereka yang bagus banget di sini

Lewat dialognya aja ini film udah tegang mampus. Sekedar pengumuman lewat toa masjid aja bisa dijadikan adegan yang bikin jantung rasanya nge-drop ke pantat. Musik & sound design-nya sih kerasa banget ngerinya pas ditonton di bioskop. Poin plus…

Review by Daffa Akhmad ★★★★½

An intense and haunting look of how power and patriarchy still holds the number 1 steering wheel of society. Rakib and Purna, two human beings reflecting and facing on each other, shown in this film as raw as they can be, with the blacks and the whites of moral as their battlefield. Whether they realize it or not, but that battlefield is also a room of mirrors and see-through glasses full of a nation(s) faith and destiny that is certainly not beautiful to reflect at. Sadly, the only thing we can do by the time being, is reflecting.

Review by ValTheMovieGuy ★★★★½

Makbul Mubarak casually dropping a masterpiece for his directorial debut

Review by athallah ★★★★

die a hero or live long enough to be berseragam

Review by Allaam Faadhilah ★★★★ 2

pengabdi sersan

Review by al pacino ★★★★

the title absolutely refers to the country's unresolved collective trauma left by Soeharto's dictatorship. this is a masterpiece that somehow gets better the more times you watch it and the more you think about it.

Review by KevinWimar ★★★★ 1

Sorry is a powerful word indeed. Arswendy Nasution nailed it 👏👏👏 - JAFF17 ( Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival 2022 )

Review by abswix ★★★★

film ini menjabarkan 5 huruf yang mengerikan; kuasa

sebuah evolusi karakter dari rakib, si bungsu pemalu yang "tidak tau apa2". akhirnya sang ayah pulang, mengajarkan rakib artinya kekuasaan dan takhta. rakib pun berubah, menjadi lebih kuat, lebih berani, dan lebih berkuasa. sampai akhirnya berhasil "menguasai" sang ayah. sebuah tensi kengerian yg berhasil dibangun dengan terstruktur, menciptakan ending yang eksplosif dan penuh kuasa.

Review by brundlefly ★★★★ 2

fragile masculinity, fucked up father-son dynamics, and abuse of power from patriarchal figures. the script is tight as fuck, never loses its focus or go off tangents by establishing unnecessary relationships or attempting to insert distracting subplots. just a straight up, intense, and gripping chess match between two men from beginning to end.

it starts off kinda slow, but only because the film tries to thoroughly paint a picture of just how dangerous it is when a man with that much power has the ambition to match it. Arswendy Bening plays this role with insane prowess and confidence, that i didnt have a single moment of doubt on his portrayal of the general throughout the entire runtime. he dominated the…

Review by urzaiz ★★★★

“You look like me when I was your age.”

As a dude that was born in the 00s of course, I didn't get the exact "flick" of the film that plunges into a certain governmental period. Nevertheless, the film itself served as an interesting sample of what they say about the dictatorship. Autobiography presents a bold and dark story with exceptional execution whether from the actors' performances, the gloomy atmospheric tone and the tension of anxiety even from start to finish.

The film was focusing on two characters, which the main character is a young man and the other is an old man with an authority, and as the film goes we as the audience have given the visionary to…

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• Cinema (2022)

Autobiography

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With his father in prison and his brother abroad for work, young Rakib works as the lone housekeeper in an empty mansion belonging to Purna, a retired general whose family Rakib’s clan have served for centuries in a rural Indonesian town. After Purna returns home to start his mayoral election campaign, Rakib bonds with the older man, who becomes a close mentor and father figure, and finds his calling as Purna’s assistant in work and life. When Purna’s election poster is found vandalised one day, Rakib doesn’t hesitate to track down the culprit, kicking off an escalating chain of violence...

Director’s Statement

Throughout three decades of Indonesia’s military dictatorship from the mid-Sixties to the late-Nineties, my father worked as a civil servant under the regime. I grew up discerning his loyalty to the state as something that seemed inherent to my family’s life. I learnt, by observing him, that loyalty is what makes a person honorable: a principle that I considered to be very true and, at that point in time, satisfyingly rewarding. However, as I grew up, a question began to haunt me: is loyalty still honorable if and when it is pledged to something monstrous? If we annul our loyalty to them, would this be considered a betrayal? Or a fight for justice? And therefore, would this make us a good or a bad person? Autobiography is an emotional inquiry into my adolescence, my country, and to the values that I was raised with—which are still being taught everywhere even to this day, twenty-four years after the collapse of the dictatorship. In a society with such a repressed history, what does it take to be able to call oneself ‘a good person’?

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PRODUCTION: Yulia Evina Bhara – KawanKawan Media Jl. Tebet Timur Dalam VII No. 15 12820 – Jakarta Selatan, Indonesia Tel. +62 81282275648 [email protected] http://www.kawankawan.media

OTHER COPRODUCTIONS: In Vivo Films (France), Potocol (Singapore), Staron Film (Poland), Cinematografica (The Philipine), NiKo Film (Germany), FOCUSED equipment (Indonesia), Partisipasi Indonesia (Indonesia)

WORLD SALES: Virginie Devesa – Alpha Violet 47 Avenue de la République 75011 – Paris, France Tel. +33 147973984 [email protected] http://www.alphaviolet.com/

PRESS OFFICE: Jon Rushton United Kingdom Tel. +44 7969837242 [email protected]

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The 9 Best Autobiographical Movies By Acclaimed Directors

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Between star wars films, mark hamill led one of the most brutal world war ii movies of all time, jeff bridges and jane fonda's chemistry elevates this forgotten psychological thriller.

You can't go home again, but you can recreate it on film. Oftentimes, a director will take a semi-autobiographical approach to a film early in their career, when the story that they feel most compelled to tell is one of their childhood or teenage years. Other times, a director farther along in their careers is able to light a new creative spark by mining their own past. Luckily, most of these films ended up being either commercially or critically successful, so there clearly is an audience for these types of ultra-personal films. With the upcoming releases of The Souvenir: Part II and Belfast , as well as a Steven Spielberg autobiographical film on the way, there seems to still be a place in cinema for directors telling their own story.

Here are some of the best:

RELATED: The Most Inaccurate Biopics of All Time

The 400 Blows (1959)

François Truffaut ’s debut is not just one of the most influential movies ever made, but also introduced the way in which a director could tell their own personal story with breathtaking intimacy. The 400 Blows centers on Antoine Doinel, a kid who can’t help but get into trouble on the streets of Paris. Much like the young Truffaut, Antoine comes from a somewhat fractured family, being passed around to live with various family members before finally living with his mother and stepfather. However, despite Antoine’s troubles with his parents and the authority figures at school who can’t figure out what to do with him, we see that cinema is an escape for him. This hints at the obsessive nature towards cinema Truffaut would adopt as an adult while writing for the film magazine, Cahiers Du Cinema, with many other cinephiles-turned-directors who would create the French New Wave. One of the ideas that Cahiers Du Cinema emphasized was the auteur theory, in which the director is the sole author of a film, much like the author is to a novel. It’s hard to think of a better early example of this than The 400 Blows , since by incorporating the story of his own childhood and the kinds of playful techniques that Truffaut would return to throughout his career, it’s impossible to imagine the film being made by anyone else.

Amarcord (1973)

While The 400 Blows sees its director looking at the past from the perspective of its teenage protagonist, Armarcord feels much like we’re experiencing a flood of memories coming back to the director as he looks back on his youth. The film sees director Federico Fellini returning to the coastal town in Northern Italy that he grew up in, Rimini. Specifically, it sees him recreating the time in which Mussolini’s Fascist party had seized power in Italy, though before the tumultuous era surrounding World War II. The film is less interested in making a political statement than it is in showcasing a revolving door of colorful characters that exemplify the kind of vibrancy and humanity that can still flourish even when those in power are trying to oppress them. It makes for a film that perhaps ends up smoothing over some of the rough edges of this period in Italian history, but the affection that Fellini has for these characters is truly infectious, and whether any of them are real or imagined, show how much these types of people had stuck in Fellini’s mind even in this later stage of his career.

Fanny and Alexander (1982)

It’s hard to think of a filmmaker more committed to exploring themes that only adults are forced to ponder than Ingmar Bergman . This makes it somehow fitting that Bergman decided to make his final film about childhood, and specifically a childhood not unlike his own, growing up in Upsala, Sweden. Originally conceived for Swedish TV as a 4-part miniseries and released theatrically in a trimmed down (but still sprawling) 188-minute version, Fanny and Alexander clearly contains subject matter that Bergman had no trouble diving head-first into. It’s one of Bergman’s warmest films, possibly due to the fact that the children whose eyes we see the film through are less encumbered by the cynicism and ponderousness that plagues the adults of Bergman’s other films. Still, Bergman manages to wrestle with the brutishness of the adult world by having Alexander (Bergman’s film avatar) constantly struggling with his bishop stepfather and his strict Christian morals. The most touching moment in the film might also be the most personal, when we see Alexander playing with a magic lantern, a moment that Bergman has thoroughly recounted from his own life that would hint at his future fascination with the magic of cinema.

Crooklyn (1994)

Though there is a character in Crooklyn that is a fictionalized childhood Spike Lee (he has oversized glasses and loves the Knicks), this is the rare example of a film that’s autobiographical for multiple storytellers. This is because while Crooklyn was directed by Spike Lee, and is undeniably a Spike Lee film in style and tone, he also wrote it with his two siblings Joie Susannah Lee and Cinqué Lee . This feels more than appropriate for a film centered on a family living in Brooklyn in the 1970s, who bear a resemblance to the real-life Lee’s (the family’s father is a composer and mother is a teacher, much like Spike Lee’s own parents). The film is an underrated little gem in Spike Lee’s filmography, and there’s something especially poignant about how he's less interested in exploring his own story than that of his parents’ struggles with raising a family as well as that of Troy, the lone girl of the siblings in the family. Reflecting on the film in 2017 , Lee said the three siblings who wrote the film were unintentionally writing a love letter to their mother, and it’s remarkable the way the film manages to radiate that warmth while not glossing over the fact that their family didn’t always grow up under ideal circumstances.

Almost Famous (2000)

This may be the hardest to relate to of all the films discussed here, and yet also might be the one where the director has claimed the most events in the film actually happened. Yes, through a series of fortuitous circumstances, a 15-year-old Cameron Crowe became a writer for Rolling Stone in the mid-70s, where he covered such rock luminaries as The Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. In Almost Famous , he turns these experiences into one streamlined story, as Crowe’s stand-in, William Miller ( Patrick Fugit ), finds himself in the same situation as the teenage Crowe, except going on tour with a fictional band called Stillwater. It’s a love letter both to ‘70s arena rock as well as the journalists that covered them, all while giving the 1970s the same wistful gaze that’s usually reserved for the 1960s. Even if Crowe's films have been ever-diminishing since, at least Almost Famous saw him as a golden god capable of the kind of sweetness few can pull off.

The Squid And The Whale (2005)

Noah Baumbach has stated a number of times that there’s a degree of fiction to The Squid And The Whale , even if the core of the movie has a lot of parallels to his parents’ divorce. Regardless, it’s hard not to connect some of the uncertainty in Walt ( Jesse Eisenberg ’s character and the film’s little Baumbach) to the grown-up Baumbach while making this film. He was reluctant to tackle subject matter so close to his own experiences, and at first, wanted co-writer Wes Anderson to direct. He also wasn’t sure that divorce was that interesting of subject matter and also didn’t think the world needed one more dramedy about New York intellectual types (though the fact that no one wants to watch Woody Allen movies anymore makes The Squid and The Whale an appealing alternative). However, this delving into more personal material paid off, as it rejuvenated a career that had stalled out after Baumbach’s '90s films and kicked off the middle period of his career that saw him etching more mature sketches of characters that are both charming and caustically annoying at the same time.

The Tree of Life (2011)

This, of course, is the hardest film to verify in terms of how autobiographical it is, since Terrence Mallick is one of cinema’s most notorious recluses. Still, one can’t help but get the sense that what’s on the film’s mind is also what’s on Mallick’s mind when he reflects on his childhood and his place in the universe. This is because the film focuses on the O’Brien family, who just like Mallick’s family, lived in Waco, Texas, and seemed to have an ambitious and domineering father much like the one Brad Pitt plays in The Tree of Life . The majority of the film takes place in this '50s Texas setting, with the most overtly autobiographical element being the combative relationship that the young boy Steve has with his father, which judging from the accounts of family friends , doesn’t seem dissimilar from Mallick’s own relationship with his dad. While the aimless architect that Steve grows up to be in the film’s present-day sequences doesn’t quite line up with Mallick himself, it still feels like we’re seeing a distillation of his feelings on nature and spirituality, even if he’ll never give an interview that'll reveal whether that’s true or not.

Lady Bird (2017)

Another instance where the director has made some comments to dispel the notion that a film is entirely autobiographical, as Greta Gerwig has said “nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know.” This is certainly believable, since the pugnacious teen we follow in Lady Bird doesn’t quite match the breezy energy we’ve gotten to see in Gerwig’s acting before she made the transition to directing . Seeing as Gerwig clearly has a love for collaborating with actors (and Saoirse Ronan ), the character could be seen as an amalgamation of the teenage Gerwig and what Ronan brought to the role. But whether the events in the film really happened to Gerwig or not, it’s hard to imagine any other director could evoke such a personal love letter to Sacramento. It’s far from the most romanticized California city on film, but watching Lady Bird , you’d never know it. Gerwig illuminates her own relationship with her hometown by evoking the complicated feelings everyone has with their hometown, and how even if you cursed it as a teen, it’s an inseparable part of who you are.

The Souvenir (2019)

Talking about how autobiographical The Souvenir is, Joanna Hogg initially wanted to deny any parallels to her own life, then saying “I thought it was ungenerous not to admit they’re my own memories.” Much like The Souvenir ’s protagonist Julie, Hogg was a film student in the early ‘80s who had a relationship with a much older man who was also a heroin addict. It turns out to be an eye-opening introduction to adulthood for Julie, and Hogg does a disarming job of filling the film with the feeling of discovery that comes with being that age, but also tempering it with the heartbreak of how thoroughly messed up this relationship is. Adding another layer of meta-reality to the film is the fact that Julie is played by Honor Swinton Byrne , the daughter of Tilda Swinton , who was actually a classmate of Hogg when she was in film school during the time depicted in the film. Also, with the coming of The Souvenir: Part II , much like the most pivotal times in any artist’s life, you could say this moment is just the beginning.

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• Introduction

Childhood and first acting experience

Training in chicago theaters, beginnings in film, breakthrough with revolutionary road and sundry bad guys, playing elvis, estragon, and george jones, directorial debut.

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Michael Shannon

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Born in Kentucky and trained in Chicago theater , Michael Shannon emerged in the early 21st century as a versatile actor in film and television . Known for the combustible intensity he brings to his performances, Shannon has excelled at playing sadistic villains, music icons, uptight bureaucrats , mystified dads, and various unforgettable eccentrics . His notable roles include those in the films Revolutionary Road (2008) and Nocturnal Animals (2016) and the TV miniseries George & Tammy (2022–23), all of which garnered him awards nominations.

• Full name: Michael Corbett Shannon
• Born: August 7, 1974, Lexington , Kentucky, U.S.
• Occupation: film , television , and stage actor, director, and producer
• Honors: Oscar nominations for best supporting actor in Revolutionary Road (2008) and Nocturnal Animals (2016), Tony nomination for best featured actor in Long Day’s Journey into Night (2016), Emmy nomination for lead actor in a miniseries in George & Tammy (2022–23)
• Fun facts: founding ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago ; first film role was as a WrestleMania -loving bridegroom in Groundhog Day (1993); front man of a rock band called Corporal

Shannon’s parents—Geraldine Hine, a lawyer, and Donald Shannon, a professor—divorced when he was a child. His father moved from Lexington , Kentucky, to the suburbs of Chicago , where he became an accounting professor at DePaul University , and Shannon spent several years bouncing between both places. He has described himself as having been a loner with few friends while growing up and has said that his first passion was music . When he was about 11 years old, however, he saw a production of Samuel Beckett ’s play Waiting for Godot that was staged outdoors in a school playground. He told Interview magazine in 2023 , “It made a huge impression on me. I think it is probably one of the things that’s responsible for me getting into the theater in the first place.”

Shannon attended three different high schools, the last of which offered him his first chance to act. In an interview with Chicago magazine in 2015 , he relates that after appearing in a school production of Shakespeare ’s The Taming of the Shrew , he was inspired to start auditioning locally: “I got a part in  Loving Little Egypt  at the Griffin Theatre [in Chicago]. The drama teacher at Evanston Township [High School] came to me then and offered me a role. But I said, ‘I can’t. I’ve got this job in, like, real theater. I’m in this now. This is a paying thing.’ She told me I’d gotten in too fast, too deep.”

Thoroughly hooked on acting , he dropped out of school at age 16 to pursue his new passion full-time. Throughout the 1990s he performed in Chicago-area theaters of all kinds, including the prestigious Steppenwolf and Lookingglass theater companies. In 1993 he cofounded (with Guy Van Swearingen and Lawrence Grimm) A Red Orchid Theatre , a storefront theater space on the city’s north side.

“Chicago turned out to be where I learned how to act, where I got my opportunities, where I met the people who would be the greatest influence on my life.”—Michael Shannon, 2015

Two of Shannon’s earliest roles in Chicago brought him into the orbit of actor and playwright Tracy Letts , and their friendship would prove to be life-changing for Shannon. In 1993 Shannon originated the role of Chris Smith, a young man who teams up with his father to plot his mother’s murder, in Letts’s ultraviolent black comedy Killer Joe . Three years later Shannon took on the part of Peter Evans, a Persian Gulf War veteran who believes that his blood is infested with insects , in Letts’s dark love story Bug , which debuted in London . Both roles secured his notoriety for playing characters at the margins of society. He reprised his role in Bug several times, including in an Off-Broadway production in New York City in 2004, which earned him an Obie Award.

As Shannon racked up impressive credits in theater, he also began working in films. His first big-screen role was as a newlywed stoked to get WrestleMania tickets from Bill Murray ’s formerly disgruntled weatherman in the comedy Groundhog Day (1993). In 1999 Shannon moved to Los Angeles , and two years later he appeared in the big-budget feature Pearl Harbor (2001). Immediately after its premiere, however, he returned to Chicago and to Red Orchid to do more theater work, including another staging of Bug . He told the Chicago Reader , “I think the time I spent in L.A. I got confused. On one hand I was having success, being involved with big pictures, but I sensed myself getting smaller as an actor, not doing anything stimulating. I had to do this before going on.”

As with his stage work, many of Shannon’s early film roles were villains or social outcasts, to which he brought a visceral intensity that made him stand out to critics. In 8 Mile (2002), a film loosely based on the life of rapper Eminem (who stars in the movie), Shannon plays the abusive boyfriend of the rapper’s mother (played by Kim Basinger ). In 2006 he starred in the film adaptation of Bug , directed by William Friedkin and costarring Ashley Judd. A year later Shannon collaborated for the first time with director Jeff Nichols on Shotgun Stories , in which Shannon plays one of two half brothers who begin a feud after their father dies.

In 2008 Shannon broke through in a big way in Revolutionary Road , directed by Sam Mendes . Shannon stole the scenes as John Givings, a troubled math genius whose outspoken anti-authoritarian streak brings welcome disruption to the lives of an unhappy suburban couple ( Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet ). He was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor.

His subsequent performances included a matricidal maniac in Werner Herzog ’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009) and predatory rock music producer Kim Fowley in the biopic The Runaways (2010). That same year Shannon began acting in the TV series Boardwalk Empire (2010–14) as the tightly wound, hypocritical Nelson Van Alden, a Prohibition agent who becomes a henchman for gangster Al Capone (Stephen Graham).

Michael Shannon has played Superman ’s nemesis General Zod in three films:

• Man of Steel (2013)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
• The Flash (2023)

In 2011 Shannon reteamed with Nichols for the powerful psychological thriller Take Shelter , in which he stars as a small-town husband and father who becomes troubled by increasingly ominous apocalyptic visions. In his review in The Hollywood Reporter , movie critic David Rooney wrote , “With his sad-eyed intensity and a towering physicality almost like that of Frankenstein ’s monster, there’s possibly no more mesmerizing American actor working in any medium today than Michael Shannon.” The following year he appeared in his third Nichols movie, Mud , and in The Iceman as real-life serial killer Richard Kuklinski . He was just as ruthless as real estate agent Rick Carver in Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes (2014), a drama set during the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–08 . For that performance he was nominated for a best supporting actor Golden Globe Award .

By 2016 Shannon’s film and TV career had become especially prolific . That year he appeared in 10 films, including 2 more collaborations with Nichols in the sci-fi thriller Midnight Special and the historical drama Loving , about the 1967 Loving v. Virginia legal case . With Tom Ford ’s metafictional film Nocturnal Animals , Shannon plays a terminally ill Texas lawman and earned his second Oscar nomination for best supporting actor . He was also a surprisingly convincing Elvis Presley in Elvis & Nixon , a film that imagines what went on in “the King’s” fabled meeting with U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon ( Kevin Spacey ) in 1970. Critics praised Shannon and Spacey for not reducing Presley and Nixon to caricatures . Variety wrote, “Both actors manage to delve past superficial impersonation and deliver a fresh understanding of what makes these men tick.” Elvis & Nixon also marked Shannon’s first credit as an executive producer.

Somehow, Shannon still found time to work in theater. That same year he played James Tyrone, Jr., in a Broadway revival of Eugene O’Neill ’s Long Day’s Journey into Night , garnering him a Tony Award nomination for best featured actor in a play and a Drama Desk Award for outstanding featured actor. Among the other stage roles he made time for amid his busy film and TV career were Johnny in a 2019 Broadway production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and Estragon in a 2023 Off-Broadway production of Waiting for Godot , the same play that had sparked his interest in theater as a child.

Although Shannon continued to rule the screen in ultimate bad-guy roles, such as the sadistic government agent in Guillermo del Toro ’s The Shape of Water (2017), he occasionally showed off his comedy chops in such films as the Christmas movie Pottersville (2017) and the hit murder-mystery Knives Out (2019).

In 2022 Shannon got to display his musical talent in George & Tammy , a Showtime miniseries about the rocky romance of country music legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette (played by Jessica Chastain ). An amateur musician who leads a rock band called Corporal, Shannon performed his own vocals in his role as Jones. In an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert , he told Colbert that playing Jones, considered by many critics to have been country’s greatest male singer, was “very intimidating.” When asked to compare the experience of playing two music icons—Jones and Elvis—Shannon said, “I just came to love the stuffing out of both of them.” George & Tammy ’s premiere was the most-watched premiere in Showtime’s history. Shannon was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance as Jones.

Michael Shannon had to learn how to drive a car for his role in Midnight Special (2016), directed by Jeff Nichols. But when he was cast as a motorcycle gang member in Nichols’s film The Bikeriders (2023), he balked , telling the director, “I don’t have to learn how to ride, do I?” In a podcast interview Nichols joked that during filming, “We barely let him lean on a motorcycle.”

In 2023 Shannon directed his first film, Eric Larue , a drama about the mother (Judy Greer) of a school shooter. It received generally favorable reviews. The following year Shannon returned to Red Orchid to act in the world premiere of Turret , a play by Levi Holloway about two men hiding in an underground bunker in the Pacific Northwest . He also appeared in his seventh Nichols film, The Bikeriders , in which he gave a scenery-chewing performance as a 1960s-era motorcycle gang member.